Essential Reads
Essential Reads is your one-stop source for the top stories of the day as reported by your favorite Washington Week panelists. It's a simple way to save time and stay informed about the news you need to know. Check it out every day!
Mar 14, 2012
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Illinois Primary Could Help Romney Stake his Claim
By Dan Balz, Washington PostThe Republican presidential candidates spent the past week honing their Southern accents and talking awkwardly about their love of grits. With their Southern swing behind them, they will return to the industrial heartland for a potentially pivotal primary Tuesday in Illinois.
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Fed: U.S. Banks Can Withstand Severe Downturn
With David Wessel, Wall Street JournalThe Fed cleared the way for many of the nation's largest banks to raise dividends and buy back shares as it released the results of its latest round of "stress tests." Colin Barr and David Wessel have details on The News Hub.
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The South Rises for Santorum
By John Dickerson, SlateMitt Romney said Rick Santorum was at the "desperate end of his campaign," by which he apparently meant the winning end. The Pennsylvania senator won the primaries in Alabama and Mississippi. He is now the leading conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, though Newt Gingrich promised to take his fight all the way to the Republican convention.
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Obama-Romney Race Toss-Up in Poll Showing Independents Critical
By Julianna Goldman, Bloomberg NewsA strengthening economy and a contentious Republican primary have not translated into a wave of support for President Barack Obama, who runs even in a matchup against his likely challenger, Mitt Romney. Obama and Romney are backed by 47 percent of likely general election voters, while the president outruns the other Republican candidates, a Bloomberg National Poll conducted March 8-11 shows.
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Time and Math Work Against Santorum's White House Bid
By Sam Youngman, ReutersRick Santorum is winning the hearts of Republican conservatives but the cold realities of time and math are working against his presidential election effort. Santorum effectively became the only conservative challenger to Mitt Romney left standing when he narrowly won the Alabama and Mississippi primaries on Tuesday, as good as ending Newt Gingrich's presidential ambitions.
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Rick Santorum Speaks in Lafayette, LA after winning primaries in Alabama and Mississippi (CNN)
Mar 13, 2012
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Cliffs and Shock-Absorbency; New Afghanistan Language Confronts New Political Realities
By Major Garrett, National JournalShock-absorbency. Gen. John Allen, commander of all US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said on Monday that’s what defines the relationship between western forces and Afghanistan’s fragile government, semi-trained military and war-weary populace.
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Soldiers in Afghanistan (CNN) -
Santorum, Gingrich Make Final Pitches in Mississippi, Alabama
By Janet Hook and Ryan Tracy, Wall Street JournalOn the eve of a crucial primary in the Deep South, Rick Santorum intensified his effort to convince conservative voters that he alone has the untarnished conservative record Republicans need to take on President Barack Obama in this fall’s elections. He took that campaign theme to the heart of the Gulf Coast at a meeting of pro-drilling groups here. Mr. Santorum portrayed Newt Gingrich as a faux-conservative with a soft spot for global warming science and protecting endangered animal species.
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Soldier's Alleged Rampage in Afghanistan Leads to Violence
With Martha Raddatz, ABC NewsTaliban militants opened fire on Afghan official visiting the massacre site.
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Romney Team Sees a Plus in Gingrich’s Persistence
By Jeff Zeleny and Trip Gabriel, New York TimesMitt Romney has tried for weeks to snuff out Newt Gingrich’s presidential ambitions, but his stubborn survival has become a welcome relief for Mr. Romney. If Mr. Romney has a chance of winning the Alabama primary on Tuesday — his advisers believed the odds were strong enough to arrange a last-minute campaign visit on the eve of the election — it is largely because Mr. Gingrich’s candidacy remains alive.
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U.S. Officials Debate Speeding Afghan Pullout
By Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt, New York TimesThe Obama administration is discussing whether to reduce American forces in Afghanistan by at least an additional 20,000 troops by 2013, reflecting a growing belief within the White House that the mission there has now reached the point of diminishing returns.
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Mar 12, 2012
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The Calculus Behind the Race to Tampa
By John Dickerson, SlateWhen they hand out the bunting, funny hats, and elephant pins at Republican Party headquarters, no one talks about the math test. For the next several weeks and perhaps months, GOP politics are going to center around a complex debate about delegates that will remind us all of those math problems you hated in grade school:
If Rick leaves Philadelphia headed for Tampa on a train powered by coal his grandfather mined and Mitt drives his Mustang to the same destination, how many attacks on the elite media will it take Newt to stop them?
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U.S. Soldier's Alleged Deadly Rampage: Taliban Vow Revenge
By Muhammad Lila and Martha Raddatz, ABC NewsThe Taliban has vowed revenge against "sick-minded American savages" after a U.S. soldier was accused of going on a deadly shooting rampage Sunday. The group said it would "take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single martyr," according to a statement posted on its website, the Times of London reported.
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Obama Hits Factories as He Paints Romney as Wall Street
By Julianna Goldman, Bloomberg NewsPresident Barack Obama wants voters to know that not all chief executive officers are created equal. Some excel at manufacturing jobs, while others succeed in making money. In the battle to be the nation’s CEO-in-chief, Obama is building the argument that the U.S. economy would suffer with the latter, someone from the private equity world where Mitt Romney, his chief potential challenger and Bain Capital LLC co- founder, hails.
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Gas Prices Sink Obama’s Ratings on Economy, Bring Parity to Race for White House
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen, Washington PostDisapproval of President Obama’s handling of the economy is heading higher — alongside gasoline prices — as a record number of Americans now give the president “strongly” negative reviews on the 2012 presidential campaign’s most important issue, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
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Attack May Derail Effort to Force Taliban Into Talks
By David E. Sanger, New York TimesThe outrage from the back-to-back episodes of the Koran burning and the killing on Sunday of at least 16 Afghan civilians imperils what the Obama administration once saw as an orderly plan for 2012: to speed the training of Afghan forces so that they can take the lead in combat missions, all while drawing the Taliban into negotiations to end more than a decade of constant war.
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Mar 09, 2012
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Is Mitt Romney the New Bob Dole?
By John F. Harris and Jonathan Martin, PoliticoMany Republican political professionals are worried that Mitt Romney’s public image is now defined by a word never associated with winning presidential campaigns — weakness — and are urging him to take dramatic steps to recast his reputation between now and the fall.
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Senate Rejects GOP Attempt to Advance Keystone XL
By Richard Simon and Christi Parsons, Los Angeles TimesWith gas prices becoming a high-octane campaign issue, the Democratic-led Senate beat back a Republican effort to advance the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline project. Thursday’s vote to attach the project to a must-pass transportation bill failed 56 to 42, with 11 Democrats joining Republicans to support the measure. Sixty votes were needed for passage.
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Pro-Santorum Ad Hits Both Rivals
By Janet Hook, Wall Street JournalRick Santorum’s supporters, one day after clamoring for rival Newt Gingrich to drop out of the Republican presidential race, are heading to the Deep South to air a new ad arguing that neither of his rivals can win in the fall general election.
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Obama’s Super Paranoia
By Major Garrett, National JournalIn Obamaland, the 3 a.m. phone call has become the 3 a.m. e-mail. In their own way, both speak to a crisis mentality and a groping for security. The contexts couldn’t be more different, but the anxiety—real and imagined—is no less genuine. To review, the 3 a.m. phone call was in a TV ad Hillary Rodham Clinton ran against Obama in the heat of the Texas and Ohio primaries in 2008. It asked voters to ponder the fate of America if Barack Obama were president and a national crisis struck in the middle of the night.
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President Obama speaks at a truck manufacturing plant in North Carolina (CNN) -
Deep South Primaries Offer Little Hope for Romney, Opportunity for Santorum
By Nia-Malika Henderson, Washington PostFor Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, the Deep South primaries in Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday will be a race for conservative primacy in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination. Unless one of them decisively puts the other away, however, Mitt Romney could be the big winner no matter where he finishes.
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